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As everyone know, right now we have both stencil shadows and shadow maps in the engine, and the player is mostly free to choose whichever he likes more. Due to the reasons I provide below, stencil shadows will most likely be dropped in some future, but that future is definitely not here yet. Unlike shadow maps, stencil shadows do not support: Alpha-tested shadow occluders. Shadows on translucent surfaces. Volumetric lights with account for shadows. Soft shadows with contact hardening. Point 4 can be ignored, point 3 has an automatic workaround by forcing lights with volumetrics to shadow maps. Points 1 and 2 result in major difference in behavior between the two modes. For the reference, we have one more technical difference: Front faces cast shadows in shadow maps mode, but don't cast them in stencil shadows mode. I recall how initially volumetric lights had their shadows disabled in stencil shadows mode, and mappers were not happy because that's a big difference in behavior. One issue was that every mission has to be beta-tested in both modes. That's why right now I mostly follow the same strategy: Alpha-testing is disabled when rendering shadow maps (since 2.12), unless you enable r_shadowMapAlphaTested. Shadows are disabled on translucent objects (since today's 2.13 dev build), unless you enable r_shadowMapOnTranslucent. I wonder if this is still what majority of the mappers think is best?

For easier inspection of various culling algorithms, I created a new debug cvar. It fixes the camera position that renderer frontend uses for culling, but allows player to fly around and see the same objects from different view point. Don't expect perfectly valid/sane picture, but I think it reliably shows which objects are sent to OpenGL for rendering. Here is the demonstration (bottom-left is clipped away in this video, but I hope it is clear anyway): It will be available in the next dev build. Maybe someone will find it useful for analyzing overdraw? P.S. Aside from that, "r_showtris 2" + "r_useScissor 0" should be useful for overdraw analysis too. It is questionable though whether you should disable r_useScissor in this case...

Changelog of 2.13 development: dev17044-10746 * Supported mission overrides for cvars which are tied to gameplay state (5453). * Fixed crash on start with 32-bit Windows build. * Rebuilt all third-party libraries with conan 2 system (6253). * Reverted improvements of capped FPS to fix video/audio desync (5575). dev17042-10732 * Restored ability to create cvars dynamically, fixing bow in missions (5600). * Fixed issue where .cfg files were saved every frame (5600). * Added sys.getcvarf script event for getting float value of cvar (6530). * Extracted most of constants from weapon scripts into cvars (6530). dev17035-10724 * Support passing information between game and briefing/debriefing GUI via persistent info. Also changed start map & location selection, added on_mission_complete script callback (6509 thread). * New bumpmapped environment mapping is now default (6354). * New behavior of zero sound spawnarg is not default (6346). * Added sound for "charge post" model (6527). * Major refactoring of cvars system to simplify future changes (5600). Known issues: * Bow does not shoot in some missions (only in this dev build): thread dev17026-10712 * Nested subviews (mirrors, remotes, sky, etc.) now work properly (6434). * Added GUI debriefing state on mission success (6509 thread). * Sound argument override with zero now works properly under cvar (6346 thread). * Environment mapping is same on bumpy and non-bumpy surfaces under cvar (6354 thread). * Default console font size reduced to 5, added lower bound depending on resolution. * Added high-quality versions of panel_carved_rectangles (6515). * Added proper normal map for stainglass_saint_03 (6521). * Fixed DestroyDelay warning when closing objectives. * Fixed the only remaining non-threadsafe cvar (5600). * Minor optimization of depth shader. * Added cm_allocator debug cvar (6505). * Fixed r_lockView when compass is enabled. dev17008-10685 * Enabled shadow features specific to maps implementation (poll). * Auto-detect number of parallel threads to use in jobs system (6503). * Improved parallel images loading, parallelized sounds loading, optimized EAS (6503). * Major improvements in mission loading progress bar (6503). * Core missions are now stored uncompressed in assets SVN (6498). * Deleted a lot of old rendering code under useNewRenderPasses + some cleanup (6271). dev16996-10665 * Environment mapping supports texcoord transforms on bumpmap (6500). * Fully disabled shadows on translucent objects (6490). * Fixed dmap making almost axis-aligned visportals buggy (6480). * com_maxFps no longer quantizes by milliseconds on Windows 8+. * Now Uncapped FPS and Vsync are ON by default. * Supported Vsync control on Linux. * Added set of prototype materials (thread). * Fixes to Stone font to remove stray pixels (post). * Loot candlestick no longer toggle the candle when taken. * Optimized volumetric lights and shadows in the new Training Mission (4352). * Fixed frob_light_holder_toggle_light on entities with both skin_lit and skin_unlit. * Now combination lock supports non-door entities by activating them. * Added low-poly version of hedge model (6481). * Added tiling version of distant_cityscape_01 texture (6487). * Added missing editor image for geometric02_red_end_HD (6492). * Added building_facades/city_district decal material. * Fixed rendering with "r_useScissor 0" (6349). * Added r_lockView debug rendering cvar (thread). * Fixed regression in polygon trace model (5887). * Added a set of lampion light entityDefs.

TDM Modpack v4.0 This new version of the Modpack is intended to be a long-term release. The Modpack is mature and stable enough to stay for some time how it is today, right where I want it to be: the foundation on which you build your favorite set of Mods for The Dark Mod. Good care was put to make sure the mods included in the Modpack stay true to TDM and neither the missions nor the gameplay are altered in any relevant way. Yes, we have more tools and skills at our disposal but it is up to you, the player, to make use of them or not. Play The Dark Mod your way. Compatible with 2.12 ONLY If you have previous versions of the Modpack I suggest you start fresh: disable and delete old mods. Use the mods included in version 4.0 from now on. TDM 2.12 introduces a great new feature and we can now have different mods from different sources running in parallel. Thanks @MirceaKitsune for pushing! Thanks @Dragofer for opening this door! What's more for 2.12 internal resources for mods have doubled and we can now load more mods than ever before and we are grateful for this! Thank you, @stgatilov! What's new in version 4.0? Starting with this release I am getting rid of the individual versioning and all mods are now at the same version (4.0 in this case). "TDM Modpack" is now the name of the project and the previous main "pack" has been split into two standalone mods: "Core Essentials" and the "Skill Upgrade". (The Skills are further split into their own packages and if you don't want a particular skill just look for the relevant pk4 and remove it). SHOULDERING BOOST - Decommissioned In TDM 2.12 we can now mantle while carrying bodies and the "Shouldering Boost" mod is no longer relevant and it has been decommissioned. In this new release of TDM we can also mantle while carrying objects therefore double thanks to @Daft Mugi for these quality of life improvements. Truly appreciated, thanks! SIMPLE SUBTITLES - New! Work on the subtitles is in progress and for the next version of TDM it is expected that players will be able to customize how subs are displayed on screen but until then, this new standalone mod offers an alternative for players looking for a rather simplistic presentation. Enable "Simple Subtitles", go to the audio settings and set the scope you prefer: Story [default]: Story only On: Story and general speech (Give it a try!) Off: Disable subtitles You can find more details of the mod in the opening post or in the readme included in the download. We must thank @Geep, @datiswous and @stgatilov (among other contributors) for the good work on the subtitles so far! Well done, guys! SMART OBJECTS - Present and Future Sometimes it is difficult to tell if an object is being held or not and the "Smart Objects" mod (now part of "Core Essentials") gets a little update and whenever you manipulate an object three dots [...] are displayed on screen: These three dots are a placeholder for real names, something I plan on addressing as a separate mod in the coming weeks... Here is the relevant topic: Nameless objects... a missed opportunity Stay tuned. INVENTORY MENU - Reworked The TDM user interface suffers from gigantism in some areas and the inventory menu has been re-worked and it is now delivered in a more compact format: The menu is 15% smaller and while the text has the same size as before item names are sometimes cut and I added a tip at the bottom to make sure the full name is always available. The updated menu is part of the "Core Essentials" mod. MINOR TWEAKS In each release of the Modpack I always tweak something and in for 4.0 I changed many things internally. You shouldn't notice any of the changes but it is worth giving the improved Whistle Skill a try... Here is the full changelog: • v4.0 New release - Major reorganization and global revision: Compatible with TDM 2.12. - All mods now share the same version (4.0 in this case). - Previous "Modpack" split into "Core Essentials" and the "Skill Upgrade". - Skill mods presented in their own, standalone pk4. - CORE ESSENTIALS: New, re-worked inventory menu. - CORE ESSENTIALS: New high mantle sound for our protagonist. - CORE ESSENTIALS - LOOT ANIMATIONS: Added scroll animation for paintings. - CORE ESSENTIALS - SMART OBJECTS: Display onscreen a subtle signal (...) when holding an item. - CORE ESSENTIALS - SHOULDERING BOOST: Mod decommissioned (alternative included in TDM 2.12) - SKILL UPGRADE - MANIPULATION: Improved script, smaller footprint. - SKILL UPGRADE - DISTRACTION: New approach (again). - HUNTER BOW: Increased radius of gas arrow effect. - BASIC SUBTITLES: Initial release. That's pretty much it for now. Thanks site admins, developers, mappers, modders and members of the community but more importantly, thank you taffer, for playing and supporting The Dark Mod. The download can be found in the opening post. Cheers!

big problem with that is that we are nearing a point where the electrons cant travel safely anymore (something to do with things on the quantum level), i guess they need to speed up development of light based computers or get smart with autoreconfiguring gateways internally in processors.

I understand. I appreciate the time and effort you put into this. I'll wait until it is available in the repository (maybe a later hotfix, or dev build, or possibly the next beta if one is made), then I'll make it my top priority to test it.

You can download the build tools independently of VS: Buildtools for Visual Studio 2022. If you can still install those on Win7, you can maybe build DR with the command @stgatilov posted above. You might need to navigate to the directory where msbuild.exe is located first or even launch a developer console (which should be available in the start menu after you installed the build tools).

Welcome to the forums Ansome! And congrats on making it to beta phase!

"...to a robber whose soul is in his profession, there is a lure about a very old and feeble man who pays for his few necessities with Spanish gold." Good day, TDM community! I'm Ansome, a long-time forums lurker, and I'm here to recruit beta testers for my first FM: "The Terrible Old Man", based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name. This is a short (30-45 minute), story-driven FM with plenty of readables and a gloomy atmosphere. Do keep in mind that this is a more linear FM than you may be used to as it was deemed necessary for the purposes of the story's pacing. Regardless, the player does still have a degree of freedom in tackling challenges in the latter half of the FM. If this sounds interesting to you, please head over to the beta testing thread I will be posting shortly. Thank you!

You could try installing the Windows Subsystem for Linux and see if you can get a Linux build working on Windows. However I have no idea if WSL is comprehensive enough to allow you to build and run GUI apps using wxWidgets and OpenGL. I suspect it would be a fair amount of work to get the CMake build working, since it's never been tested on anything other than a regular Linux installation (AFAIK).

You can try msbuild command to build from command line. Perhaps it won't ask you for updated MSVC license. It should be like: msbuild DarkRadiant.sln /p:Configuration=Release

You can work around this error by putting a completely empty file called tdm_turret_scriptbased.script in your script folder, and temporarily removing all turrets from the map. Would still be interesting to see whether 10518 is the first build where the problem appears, or beta1.

The problem does not show up with all related dev builds. However, I cannot test with the last build (16854-10518), which I simply cannot start and get the report EDIT: As per our friend dragofer's suggestion, I made a blank script file in this build and removed the turrets from the WIP for a test. Then I can start the game and the mission and can save/load without problems. Summary: 16842-10488: no problems 16854-10518: cannot test (see above) 16854-10518 (modified scriptfile, no turrets) : no problems beta 1: problem appears

Thank you! Does is also happen in the first 2.12 Dev build dev16778-10275 ? If not, can you bisect to the first dev build where it happens?

Yes, however, did more tests now. The problem already starts with the first beta build. When downgrading to 2.11, everything works fine.

You made new saves under the latest build right?

New script for mappers: my flavour of a fog density fading script. To add this to your FM, add the line "thread FogIntensityLoop();" to your map's void main() function (see the example in fogfade.script) and set "fog_fade" "1" on each foglight to enable script control of it. Set "fog_intensity_multiplier" on each info_location entity to change how thick the fog is in that location (practically speaking it's a multiplier for visibility distance). Lastly, "fog_fade_speed" on each foglight determines how quickly it will change its density. The speed scales with the current value of shaderParm3, using shaderParm3 = 1000 as a baseline. So i.e. if shaderParm is currently at 1/10th of 1000, then fade speed will be 1/10th as fast. Differences to Obsttorte's script: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/14394-apples-and-peaches-obsttortes-mapping-and-scripting-thread/&do=findComment&comment=310436 my script uses fog lights you created, rather than creating one for you. Obsttorte's script will delete the foglight if entering a fogfree zone and recreate it later more than one fog light can be controlled (however, no per-fog-light level of control) adding this to the map requires adding a line to your void main() script, rather than adding an info_locations_settings entity with a custom scriptobject spawnarg in my script, mappers set a multiplier of fog visibility distance (shaderParm3), while in Obsttorte's script a "fog_density" spawnarg is used as an alternative to shaderParm3 smaller and less compactly written script fogfade.scriptfogfade.map

@MirceaKitsuneThanks for the playthrough and feedback! In recent memory my mapping efforts have gone to new projects that I feel more inspired for - I think they would probably also be more interesting to the broader TDM community. The fix to Linux users getting stuck at map start was fixed in 12-06. The FM update only covers datiswous' new subtitles and an early attempt to fix the stuck bug by moving the player start a few units. The ship was made from scratch for this FM with an exterior and interior. It's my first ship asset and I've made a lot more ships since then and which have gone up in build quality progressively. You can send me a PM if you need to get sorted out with a ship for an FM.

Great take on it and solution from what I understand! Will the normal Beta 6 contain this patch? If so it's easier to wait till then, otherwise if it's important I can of course give the test build a try given it doesn't mess with my normal install.

Well, let's explore this a bit. How can this be solved? Currently, creeping overrides running (like you said). Here are a couple issues or considerations: What about players who want to keep the fine control of toggling each one independently? Perhaps some players want to go from creeping to running. At the moment, the code is written in such a way (due to its Doom 3 history) that toggling creep can set the toggled run state, but toggling run cannot set the toggled creep state. The toggle creep key can set the toggled run state to walk but only once. If the player presses the toggle run key again, it will toggle without regard to the toggled creep state. Fixing this would require a lot of code rewriting. Brainstorming: It almost sounds like increase and decrease speed keys are desired. Run key to go from creep to walk and from walk to run. Creep key to go from run to walk and from walk to creep. If you're curious to give this a try, here's a Linux test build that matches beta212-05 (rev 16950-10635) with the following change: The toggle creep key sets the toggled run state to walk but only once. If the player presses the toggle run key again, it will toggle without regard to the toggled creep state. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1osTCQRf7LQ5wPvhGl2uRU4NcFnJPEu9_/view?usp=sharing

TDM is already a niche genre. If we release it to a niche platform, it will be niche²! Since we would have to strip TDM off all its assets, recreate some and build a demo FM around it, it wouldn't be more than a tech-demo, i.e., there is no game, which would be niche³. It's just not worth it! We even did not release on Steam due to licensing issues and on that platform, we actually could have gained a huge player-base. No TDM dev has ever showed interest in doing such a thing and that also goes for most of our community. It's not going to happen unless you do it yourself. Be prepared to put at least 2 years of full-time work into this project.

Here's my first FM. A small and easy mission, inspired by Thief's Den and The Bakery Job, where you must find and steal a cook's recipe book in order to save a friend from going out of business. Download: Mediafire (sk_cooks.pk4) TDM Website's Mission Page The in-game mission downloader Thanks to: The people who helped me get this far, both in the forums and on Discord. The beta testers: MirceaKitsune, Mat99, Baal, wesp5, Cambridge Spy, jaxa, grodenglaive, Acolytesix ( Per the author in the beta testing thread. ) Skaruts has given permission to the TDM Team to add Subtitles or Localization Strings to this mission. (No EFX Reverb.) If anyone from the Community or TDM team wishes to create these we will gladly test them and update the mission database.

well decided to have a look at setting it up on solus and ... it does not exist as a package. you can still build it yourself but there are some pitfalls. timeshift relies on dcron which was removed from solus so you have to create the auto backup sequence with systemd yourself (i hope your good at scripting). create a textfile, name it "timeshift.service" with following content: [Service] ExecStart=/usr/bin/timeshift --check Create a second textfile, name it "timeshift.timer" with following content: [Unit] Description=Run timeshift --check [Timer] OnBootSec=10min OnUnitActiveSec=60min [Install] WantedBy=timers.target` copy both files to /usr/lib/systemd/system (-> sudo cp timeshift.service /usr/lib/systemd/system # same for timeshift.timer) Now enable the timer: sudo systemctl enable timeshift.timer you might need these dependencies before building timeshift. sudo eopkg install libgee libvte rsync dcron libjson-glib even though dcron is listed as a dependency it does not work with solus because it is systemd based.

Thank you! Unfortunately it didn't fix the bug. Not worth it to keep tinkering since stgatilov fixed it on the code side. The next 2.12 beta build will be good to go. I committed this anyway since it has the new subtitles.

With TDM 2.12, after the credits finished, the "Mission Complete" screen did not display. I found that the screen was black and I could hear my footsteps when I tried to move around. I think the reason for the mission not completing successfully was that the "Do not kill or harm allies" objective was never marked as "1 = STATE_COMPLETE" instead it was left as "0 = STATE_INCOMPLETE". Note, I didn't use noclip throughout the mission. Same as: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/18054-fan-mission-the-accountant-2-new-in-town-by-goldwell-20160509/&do=findComment&comment=458491